A Guide to Brawl: Dominaria United
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By: Kumagoro42, Gianluca Aicardi
Sep 12 2022 12:01pm
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A GUIDE TO BRAWL: DOMINARIA UNITED

 Fall update to the Brawl series! Dominaria United triggered a new Standard rotation, which only left available in the format's pool the legendaries from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, Innistrad: Crimson Vow, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, Streets of New Capenna, and Dominaria United itself. Brawl is at its nadir!

 The 45 new commanders, a very large amount for a single set (roughly twice the usual), cover all dual-color and allied three-color combinations, but only three of the monocolored, skipping both monoblue and monogreen. We still have very little availability of enemy three-color commanders, with Abzan and Temur completely unrepresented, as they where before rotation. Dominaria United didn't enter that area at all.

 The total number of available commanders is brought down to 142 (-117, +45). Pithing Needle is now the only banned card in Brawl.

 

 The count by color becomes as follows.

  • Monowhite: 11 commanders (-8, +1)
  • Monoblue: 9 commanders (-9, +0)
  • Monoblack: 12 commanders (-10, +4)
  • Monored: 9 commanders (-9, +2)
  • Monogreen: 7 commanders (-9, +0)
  • Azorius: 7 commanders (-4, +3)
  • Dimir: 9 commanders (-4, +3)
  • Rakdos: 8 commanders (-5, +3)
  • Gruul: 6 commanders (-3, +3)
  • Selesnya: 8 commanders (-4, +4)
  • Orzhov: 8 commanders (-7, +3)
  • Izzet: 5 commanders (-7, +3)
  • Golgari: 5 commanders (-10, +3)
  • Boros: 7 commanders (-9, +3)
  • Simic: 6 commanders (-10, +3)
  • Esper: 4 commanders (-0, +1)
  • Grixis: 4 commanders (-0, +1)
  • Jund: 4 commanders (-0, +1)
  • Naya: 4 commanders (-1, +1)
  • Bant: 4 commanders (-0, +1)
  • Abzan: 0 commanders (-0, +0)
  • Jeskai: 1 commander (-0, +0)
  • Sultai: 1 commander (-1, +0)
  • Mardu: 1 commander (-1, +0)
  • Temur: 0 commanders (-0, +0)
  • Quadricolor: 0 commanders (-1, +0)
  • Pentacolor: 2 commanders (-4, +1)
  • Colorless: 1 commander (-0, +1)

 Now let's see what our umpteenth return to Dominaria brings to Brawl!

 Jump to: Monowhite, Monoblack, Monored, Azorius, Dimir, Rakdos, Gruul, Selesnya, Orzhov, Izzet, Golgari, Boros, Simic, Esper, Grixis, Jund, Naya, Bant, Pentacolor, Colorless.

 MONOWHITE BRAWL COMMANDERS

 

 Danitha, Benalia's Hope: Most of the legendaries from Dominaria United are new versions of characters we already knew. Case in point, Gerrard's descendent Danitha previously appeared in Dominaria as Danitha Capashen, Paragon. This latest incarnation is a super-beater with a large body (especially for monowhite) and relevant keywords, but that's about it. The Aura-based ability is quite irrelevant and the Equipment ability could be occasionally useful, but very rarely. Monowhite finds better commanders in the form of cheaper creatures, or through planeswalkers like The Wandering Emperor and Elspeth Resplendent.

 MONOBLACK BRAWL COMMANDERS

    

 Braids, Arisen Nightmare: The fearsome Cabal mage Braids is back, madder than ever now that she's been turned into a Nightmare after being trapped in her own dementia space. The original Odyssey incarnation, Braids, Cabal Minion (notably banned in Commander) was an unstoppable sacrifice engine. Now we can pick whether to sacrifice a permanent or not, but we also give the opponent the choice to not respond to our sacrifice, instead losing 2 life and letting us draw a card. It's trickier to abuse, and the opponent will always have a way to circumvent the board disruption. But she still makes for an interesting "chaotic" commander whose presence on the battlefield changes the way the game is played.

 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse: While the ultimate cosmic battle against the Phyrexians will take most of 2023, we meet the fourth Praetor here. This Sheoldred does not read as immediately impressive as the original Sheoldred, Whispering One, but she's also much cheaper, with a strong cost/body ratio. And the ability to drain for two every time both we and our opponents draw a card shouldn't absolutely be underestimated. Granted, it's not as strong a payoff in Brawl as it is in Commander, not having access to cards like Memory Jar for a potential instant-win, or even just various Howling Mine effects. But it's a continuous life tax that eventually adds up. Monoblack has maintained a strong menagerie of midrange "good stuff" commanders, with highlights like Sorin the Mirthless and Henrika Domnathi. But neo-Sheoldred comfily takes place among those.

 The Raven Man: After so many years of being hinted at the existence of this mental bogeyman haunting Liliana's mind, we finally get a card for him, as well as the revelation that he's a fragment of the essence of the ancient necromancer Lim-Dûl, a relic of the Ice Age (everything's coming around again just in time for the 30th anniversary!). To be perfectly honest, the card avatar for the Raven Man is nothing to write home about. It's a slightly flavorful "discard matters" payoff, but building an army of ittle Birds doesn't seem like the avenue to victory a discard deck should pursue. And that four-mana, sorcery-speed, tap-requiring discard effect is just bad. Something you'd expect to see at uncommon, not at rare. It doesn't even double as a discard outlet for reanimator.

 Liliana of the Veil: The card that really put Liliana on the map, back in the very first Innistrad set, shows up in Standard again after almost exactly eleven years, with an art that emphasizes the character's new state of mind: she's less of a devil-may-care seductress now, more of a tormented soul that tried in vain to bury her own self-hatred under a fabricated identity. But the time of Professor Onyx is over, and Liliana returns to Dominaria to find the truth about the Raven Man. Is Liliana of the Veil still the stellar card that it was back when it would sell for 100 bucks apiece? Probably. She's certainly a better commander for both discard and reanimator strategies than The Raven Man could ever be. That right there is already a win for Lili.

 MONORED BRAWL COMMANDERS

  

 Squee, Dubious Monarch: The formerly immortal (look, it's complicated) former cabin hand of the original Weatherlight skyship, Squee has seen a lot over the centuries. At some point he even became the king of a Goblin clan, as we just found out. This new Squee plays like a worse Legion Warboss that has to attack to generate tokens – which means he'll probably die in the process, and we'll have to bring him back via some pseudo escape. It could be worse, but both previous incarnations, Squee, Goblin Nabob and Squee, the Immortal, had real, cheap staying power, which could be abused in ways that this one can't.

 Jaya, Fiery Negotiator: Spoiler alert: Jaya dies during the events of Dominaria United. So this is probably the last planeswalker card she'll ever get, barring some flashback version in supplemental sets. Unfortunately, she doesn't bow out with an amazing incarnation. The Fiery Negotiator makes Monks with prowess, in reference to her previous role as a teacher at the Keral Keep pyromancing monastery; she impulse-draws the best card out of the top two; she can deal some damage at one creature, but we need an aggressive and populated board for that. Her ultimate is only good in a "monored spells" kind of build. All in all, she's pretty decent, and is a four-drop four-ability planeswalkers after all. Not on the same level as her mentee Chandra in her Chandra, Torch of Defiance days, which is what this card seems designed around.

 AZORIUS BRAWL COMMANDERS

   

 Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart: Before rotation, Azorius was plagued by a number of hyper-specialized, low-impact Brawl commanders, like Vega, the Watcher and Hama Pashar, Ruin Seeker. Fortunately, Dominaria United provides the color pair with new blood, starting with this new version of Rafwyn Capashen, which is both a vast improvement over the previous Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage and a legitimate build-around commander, despite being just an uncommon. Spellslinger is a common build in white-blue, and one that happens to generate incidental creatures (e.g. Exotic Pets, Protect the Negotiators), making Raff a solid source of card advantage. Until our board is developed enough for his second ability to turn into a wincon. Raff really is the full package and, with a cost that allows him to be recast from the command zone multiple times with ease, he's definitely in the run for one of the go-to Azorius commanders of this era.

 Stenn, Paranoid Partisan: Stenn does two things for us. The first is, he gives us a discount on a noncreature card type of our choice – sort of a more flexible yet less rewarding Goblin Electromancer. The other ability, which gives him his nickname, is being able to dodge removal or combat damage by flickering on demand. This requires keeping three mana open, though, which is not exactly ideal. Stenn's best application as a commander has to be in a build that cares about creatures entering the battlefield, a conceivable strategy in Azorius but one that currently doesn't go much beyond minor payoffs like Rumor Gatherer and Celebrity Fencer.

 Tura Kennerüd, Skyknight: Five-drop 3/3 flyer with triple colored mana requirement might feel a bit demanding, but Tura happens to be a perfect companion for Raff, fueling the latter's card draw capability while triggering in unison. As a commander on his own merits, he's probably too slow and fair.

 DIMIR BRAWL COMMANDERS

   

 Ertai Resurrected: Keeping a counterspell and a removal spell in the command zone has got to be a pretty good deal. Granted, past the second iteration, Ertai's cost is going to be a bit steep, and he's consistently replacing the opponent's lost card with a fresh one (although this could double as a form of sacrifice profit in exchange for one of our most expendable permanents). Still, the second coming of the ancient Weatherlight traitor can do valuable work at the helm of any generic Dimir Control list.

 Rona, Sheoldred's Faithful: In Dominaria United, Dimir shares an "instants and sorceries matter" mechanic with both Azorius and Izzet. Phyrexian fangirl Rona's simple ping is not a very impactful declination of the theme, though. On top of that, her cost/body ratio is not particularly appealing, and her recursion ability seems more onerous than just paying the commander tax – even within a reanimator build that can put discard to some use, it would be too convoluted a setup to actually matter.

 Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator: Two mana is on par with what a looter usually costs, and Vohar also adds some occasional life drain to the deal. But what makes it worthy of consideration as a commander is the sacrifice ability that lets us Snapcaster Mage an instant or sorcery. Realistically, we can expect to be able to flashback three or maybe even four spells over the course of a single game, which could be a crucial factor in grinding matches.

 RAKDOS BRAWL COMMANDERS

   

 Garna, Bloodfist of Keld: Radha's best frenemy Garna wants us to attack with creatures, simple as that. Considering that's what we would already be doing in an aggressive Rakdos deck, and that it's vital for such a build not to run out of gas, we can conclude that this Keldon warlord is a good fit for commander in that situation: if the opponent lets our attackers through, we're winning; if they trade, more will come. More straightforward than Hidetsugu, less specialized than Anje.

 Lagomos, Hand of Hatred: If there's a format that can try and make Lagomos's Demonic Tutor ability work is Commander. Failing that, its little brother Brawl (especially in its Historic Brawl variant) has to be the next best environment to exploit this Cabal Shaman. The effort required to get to the five deaths necessary to activate Lagomos has to be directly proportional to what we're going to tutor with him – something that a non-Singleton build has probably a harder time justifying. Lagomos even supplies one of the deaths himself, and that already works very well in sacrifice lists of any kind. Definitely a Johnny/Jenny commander that shouldn't be underrated.

 Rivaz of the Claw: Well-designed Dragon tribal commander. This faithful Viashino comes in the right colors and offers ramp and recursion to his big friends – plus a 3/3 menacing body as a bonus. The only current and cheaper alternative to Rith, Liberated Primeval as the face of a Dragon deck.

 GRUUL BRAWL COMMANDERS

   

 Meria, Scholar of Antiquity: This crafty Elf is hard to evaluate at the moment. Building an "artifacts matter" list in red-green doesn't look all that feasible right now, but it's a safe bet that The Brothers' War might change that in a couple months. In the meanwhile, Meria is the less expensive Gruul commander at our disposal, so there's that.

 Radha, Coalition Warlord: The big issue with this new Radha is that she has to share a Standard pool with Halana and Alena, Partners for a full year. Both cards are red-green four-drops that boost another creature during combat, but Radha, being just an uncommon, accomplishes it in an extrenely underwhelming way by comparison. Sorry, girl, there is just no competition here. Also, to be honest, two-color domain cards are bound to make pretty bad commanders.

 Rulik Mons, Warren Chief: This descendant of Pashalik Mons (a name we have known since Alpha) is yet another four-drop 3/3 in these colors. Like Radha, he has to attack to trigger his main ability, but at least menace protects him somewhat from being immediately traded for. They payoff is okay – it could be ramp or a 1/1 token, both of which are useful enough if not exactly amazing by turn four or five. Once again, though, there's absolutely no reason to assign the command zone to Rulik over Halana and Alena.

 SELESNYA BRAWL COMMANDERS

    

 King Darien XLVIII: Rotation has deprived Selesnya of a great "good stuff" four-drop like Yasharn, Implacable Earth, while the new additions seem to be strictly focused on going wide with tokens. Case in point, King Darien, who used to be really expensive back when he was called Darien, King of Kieldor (all right, that was probably another Darien entirely, right?). Both versions of his majesty make Soldier tokens, but the latest one requires a considerable mana sink to hire more troops, albeit he'll also grow himself taller in the process. Plus all those 1/1s are actually 2/2s under his watch, and even resilient to sweepers, provided we're willing to sacrifice our prospective commander for the greater good. In a pinch, Darien could work as a non-conditional lord in a generic Selesnya aggro build, but he's clearly meant to be built around to some degree.

 Queen Allenal of Ruadach: This Elf queen (who's not Darien's consort, if that's what you're wondering) is yet another card that asks us to build a tokens deck. If we do, we'll be rewarded with extra tokens, and the queen will have a more threatening presence on the battlefield. She does pair well with King Darien, after all, but she's even more dependent on the token theme being properly developed in our build.

 Zar Ojanen, Scion of Efrava: This Leonin warrior descends directly from Jedit Ojanen of Efrava. She's good for enlist purposes, because she doesn't have to attack to trigger her boosting ability, but domain is a factor in its effectiveness. In a two-color deck, she's going to only boost 1/1 creatures once. This makes her a much narrower commander.

 Ajani, Sleeper Agent: Poor Ajani has been compleated by Sheoldred, and the result is this four-drop walker that can be played as a three-drop by exploiting the Phyrexian mana. Then we can proceed plussing him to fish for creature or planeswalker cards on top of our library, or minus him to distribute three +1/+1 counters among our team and enjoy some temporary vigilance. This is far from being the best Ajani ever, has the fatal flaw of not being able to defend himself, and his second ability is very loyalty-intensive so it can be used only sporadically, especially if we went for the Phyrexian discount. But he's still a functional early drop with all upsides; Selesnya can use a non-committal alternative to its better specialized options like Katilda, Dawnhart Prime and Sigarda, Champion of Light.

 ORZHOV BRAWL COMMANDERS

   

 Aron, Benalia's Ruin: The head of the Capashen clan, and father of Danitha and Raff, was yet another victim of the Phyrexian plot on Dominaria. So now he's a sacrifice outlet, although not a very practical one, requiring both tapping and a mana cost. In fact, he's more of a booster for aggro decks, contributing a 3/3 menacing body to the assault. Not the kind of gameplan Orzhov is usually following, but it could make sense, particularly if the white side is emphasized.

 Elas Il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim: A compleated Kor with an uncomplicated set of disparate abilities. She provides lifegain like half of a Soul Warden, chips at the opponent's life total like a one-sided Blood Artist, and can use deathtouch to trade if needed. None of this speaks specifically to one strategy, so she can accommodate different plans, while we take advantage of her cheap cost. All in all, a solid if unspectacular commander.

 Ratadrabik of Urborg: On the surface, this lich necromancer might appear to be a Zombie lord, but he's actually more of a "legendary matters" card. There are more than two dozens of legendary creatures for Ratadrabik to recur in token form, although not all of them are going to work too well as a 2/2. But free recursion remains a high-value reward, and Ratadrabik is kind of hard to kill – and vigilant, for some reason. Possibly a fun build-around.

 IZZET BRAWL COMMANDERS

   

 Balmor, Battlemage Captain: Similar to Raff, Weatherlight Stalwart, Balmor wants us to build a spellslinging deck with a go-wide attitude and combat damage as a wincon. The two even share the same cost and body, but Balmor's payoff is less nuanced than Raff, which is capable of providing card advantage as well as a boost to the team. The Aven battlemage is much more explosive, though, not requiring any mana investment, and accumulating power bonuses the more spells we cast, prowess-style. The creatures even get trample, to better ensure their damage output will connect. All this describes an Izzet deck that's essentially monored aggro with a blue addendum; a battleplan the more irruent Izzet players may be perfectly fine with.

 Jhoira, Ageless Innovator: The esteemed captain of the new Weatherlight celebrates her third incarnation with a card that's outright unplayable in Limited (beyond being a two-drop 2/3), but might be a fine build-around elsewhere, especially in formats with the command zone. Jhoira does only one thing, which is cheating artifacts onto the battlefield, in a way that might remind us of a specialized Aether Vial. Of course within Dominaria United, which only contains 15 artifacts, that ability amounts to nothing. And of course in Commander it's going to be great, and to a small extent in Historic Brawl as well, where Jhoira can eventually ambush the opponent with instant-speed, uncounterable Meteor Golem or Platinum Angel, free of charge. But what about regular Brawl? Well, there are 105 artifacts in the Standard pool for the Izzet identity at the moment, 21 of which are rare or mythic rare. Not a lot of them represent a juicy payoff, though, and for the most part they cost four mana or less. Regardless, the critical mass is already there, and it's only going to get better during the upcoming Phyrexian Standard season. A Jhoira-led list could be a lot of fun, as one-note and janky as she is.

 Najal, the Storm Runner: This Efreet lady, interestingly, hails from Rabiah, the first official mention of the deprecated plane since who knows how many years. She's also a powerful commander for Izzet, turning all our sorceries into instants, and forking one of them every turn provided she was able to attack. Which is not going to be too difficult if we leverage her 5/4 body, perhaps with the help of some combat trick. The safest generic choice to lead an Izzet deck in Brawl remains Eruth, Tormented Prophet, but a Najal build doesn't require much effort, particularly if we like our Izzet more on the aggressive side, but still focused on slinging spells of any size in the opponent's end step.

 GOLGARI BRAWL COMMANDERS

   

 Bortuk Bonerattle: Golgari has lost a huge quantity of commanders after rotation, with the two "Innistrad's old guys", Old Stickfingers and Old Rutstein, as its only surviving representatives. They're both enablers of graveyard shenanigans, while the Troll necromancer Bortuk is technically a payoff. Unfortunately, his reanimation clause is linked to domain, so it's going to feel disappointing in a two-color deck. He'll mostly be a six-mana Raise Dead with a 4/4 body attached. Still a provider of value, but probably not the most mana-efficient commander.

 Nemata, Primeval Warden: Before reviewing yet another "graveyard matters" legend, let's meet the new and enraged Nemata. Just like the more gentle Nemata, Grove Guardian, the ancient Treefolk has a symbiotic relationship with Saprolings. Except this time we don't need to sink any mana into Nemata to produce the little suckers, we just have to wait for the opponent's creatures to die – or, more likely, facilitate that process, which is where access to black becomes key. They'll even get exiled from the graveyard, which is a non-negligible perk, especially in Commander and Brawl with all those pesky recursions. And we're left with our Saprolings, which we can convert into cards or use to boost Nemata's body, or in any other way a Golgari list might enjoy some good sacrificial fodder. As of Dominaria United, Nemata comfortably sits as the go-to commander in his colors.

 Uurg, Spawn of Turg: The main attractive of Uurg is definitely the free surveil we get at every upkeep. From the mid-game onward, we'll probably going to toss any land we find on top into the graveyard, which is going to make Uurg larger. We can also convert them into life, but that's not a very smooth process, since it asks for mana, and we're losing surveil value that way. Overall, not the most powerful commander, although it's cheap and functional. Old Rutstein probably makes more sense as the leader of the same kind of build where Uurg would feel at home.

 BOROS BRAWL COMMANDERS

   

 Astor, Bearer of Blades: The ancient warlord Astor is one of Radha's ancestors, who was preserved for centuries aboard the Golden Argosy. A fascinating backstory for a card that's merely the current iteration of Boros's inevitable "Equipment and/or Vehicles matter" theme. Rotation took away all the commanders that cared about Equipment (we had a whopping four of those), while the Vehicle angle is kind of fresh, and could benefit from a few cards from Neon Dynasty and Streets of New Capenna, albeit the best ones already have a low crew number. A Surgehacker Mech deck, perhaps? At any rate, Astor is certainly a niche commander.

 Baird, Argivian Recruiter: The wording on this new Baird calls for "a creature with power greater than its base power". That's essentially a subset of the modified mechanic, and it's not too hard to satisfy, either with +1/+1 counter or a power-enhancing Equipment. Going wide this way could prove quite cheap, making Baird both the least expensive commander in Boros and one of the most appealing.

 Tori D'Avenant, Fury Rider: Differently abled Knight Tori is a combat booster on legs (no pun intended). She gives trample to red attackers, vigilance to white attackers, and +1/+1 to everybody. Problem is, she has to put herself in the life of fire for all that to trigger, and she's only a 3/3. If we're going to suicide-bomb with our commander, it has to be for a decisive alpha strike, and that can't be Tori's whole game plan. She doesn't even have haste, so she can't possibly sit in the command zone until everything's ready to go.

 SIMIC BRAWL COMMANDERS

   

 Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief: Ivy is a cute pixie who likes to copies combat tricks onto herself. This might or might not be relevant as a way to discourage the opponent from using tricks of their own (it won't always line up well with what Ivy is doing, so it might just not matter that she's getting pumped for free) and is mostly a way to make the most out of our tricks. An aggro line that aims to boost evasive creatures into a quick win is a conceivable strategy; I'm just not sure that's something Simic would ever want to do, since it doesn't seem to exploit the pair's primary strengths.

 Nael, Avizoa Aeronaut: This intrepid Scout is a powerhouse in Limited, scrying the best of our next draws to the top of our library or even into our hand. Too bad such a feat will be inevitably forbidden to her in Brawl and Commander.

 Tatyova, Steward of Tides: Back when she called herself a Benthic Druid, the mermaid Tatyova used to turn land drops into card draws. Now she got more aggressive, throwing lands at the opponent in the form of 3/3 flyers, in a way that would make Nissa proud. The process is technically slow, since nothing really happens with Tatyova until we hit our seventh land. But that makes her even better as a commander, so she can wait for her turn without taking space in our hand. We should be aware of turning any board sweeper into a one-sided Armageddon, though, a threat that's only a minor concern in Limited; not so much in a Constructed format.

 ESPER BRAWL COMMANDERS

 

 Zur, Eternal Schemer: Classic Esper commander Zur the Enchanter was a deadly smorgasbord of enchantment tutoring. This new incarnation comes with the same body, but it's one mana cheaper. Not enough of a positive to account for the much lower power level: now the mighty Zur contents himself with just turning enchantments we already have around into creatures, granting them some useful abilities, yet not doing anything at all to help assemble the board he craves. We can certainly try and build an enchantment-based deck filled with cards like Hallowed Haunting and Rabble Rousing, but it's not even a given that turning such haymakers into creatures would make them better; in fact, it would probably make them worse. And monowhite Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr might still be the better commander for that kind of list.

 GRIXIS BRAWL COMMANDERS

 

 Sol'Kanar the Tainted: The return of one of the most beloved legends from Legends takes the form of this fascinating Demonic Pact-like mythic. In Limited, Sol'Kanar is likely going to impact the game so much during the three turns we get to control him that the prospect of having to hand him over to the opponent is not really a downside. In Constructed, it might matter, so we'd better have ways to either sacrifice him or, even better, bounce him or flicker him before that fourth end step. He's not the most practical commanders, but he's powerful, and Grixis lists love power.

 JUND BRAWL COMMANDERS

 

 Soul of Windgrace: Jund has some solid options for commanders thanks to New Capenna, but the ghost of the late Lord Windgrace, one of Urza's Nine Titans, is probably going to take the cake. To put it simply, Soul of Windgrace turns any excess land into advantage, either by cycling them away, or using them to adjust our life total, or to ensure a safe attack with our 5/4 beater. The whole process is a little mana hungry, but the lands aren't wasted, since Windgrace sends them to the battlefield eventually. He's a late-game commander, better cast when we can keep the indestructible option open, which means not before we've gotten access to seven mana. But from that moment on, our phantom Cat will prove hard to kill and likely to take over the game.

 NAYA BRAWL COMMANDERS

 

 Rith, Liberated Primeval: The set's big Dragon is this new incarnation of Rith, one of the Primevals and the daughter of Palladia-Mors. At first glance, she might look like a tribal commander, but that ward 2 to other Dragons remains relevant as a protection granted to her own tokens. And while a resilient 5/5 flyer for five is its own justification for a commander/finisher, we really want to maximize that excess damage clause to really go over the top with our Dragon squad. And it might take as little as forcing the opponent into having to chump-block our beefy green and red creatures – white is definitely the support color with Rith.

 BANT BRAWL COMMANDERS

 

 Shanna, Purifying Blade: Hard to find a lifegain payoff more enticing than Shanna's massive card draw trigger. Sisay's descendant, who went on to become captain of the Weatherlight like her ancestor, pretty much single-handedly represents a huge incentive to take the lifegain route in Bant.

 PENTACOLOR BRAWL COMMANDERS

 

 Jodah, the Unifier: The only other five-color commander left standing after rotation is Kyodai, Soul of Kamigawa. Unlike the white Dragon, this new incarnation of the archmage Jodah is a specialized option, asking for a "legendary matters" build. Cascading from a legendary to the next could be as entertaining as it is powerful, potentially even quite oppressive in Historic Brawl.

 COLORLESS BRAWL COMMANDERS

 

 Karn, Living Legacy: Dominaria United restores a colorless option for Brawl, something that we had missed during the previous cycle. Once again, it's Karn to fill that role. This is not an especially strong iteration of the silver golem, but it has some potential, drawing cards and making Powerstones to pay for activations or artifacts, then eventually turning them into a wincon. The main issue here is the rest of the pool: it's colorless going to be viable in Standard Brawl? Right now, not too much. Let's have another look after The Brothers' War.

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